SC-1 Mic Preamp NOW ON SALE!!!!

After many months of development, testing, troubleshooting, frustration, problems, and accomplishments... the SC-1 mic preamp kit, PSU-1848 power supply kit and power transformer kits are now available for sale!

Click here to ORDER

Photo of a finished SC-1 mic preamp kit!  (Note: XLR jacks and wires shown on picture not included in the kit.)

Features:
- Low-Noise, transformerless, High-Quality Mic Preamp
- All solid-state design, using chipsets from THAT Corp and Burr-Brown
- Soft-start, slow ramp-on +48V phantom power
- Crystal clear Red LED indicator for phantom power
- Electronically balanced input and output stages
- 12-position Grayhill gain selector switch
- Gain range from +6 to +72dB, in 6dB increments
- Input RFI protection
- Input clamping protection
- Output surge protection circuit
- Output RFI protection
... read more...

Download PDF file of Assembly Guide/Kit Instructions

Related products like the PSU-1848 Power Supply Kit, Power Transformer Kit, Power Control Kit are also available for sale. Click here.
 Monday, August 25, 2008
TS-2 Mic Preamp Battery Powered
Monday, August 25, 2008 5:05:55 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00) (  |  |  )
Start doing prototype of the case... get dimensions of holes and stuff... drill manually, make corrections, keep notes... do some filing to fix the screwups.

Some notes:

The Motherboard, Switchboard and VU meter PCBs... crammed in a 2-inch high, 6" width case. As you can see, it is tight... the switches and capacitors have literally millimeter clearances from hitting the ceiling. The distance between the motherboard and switchboard perfectly aligns with the PCB slot of the case.



Attach the front panel to the PCBs. Check out the input transformer peeking from the side.


Photo of the blue anodized case with the black anodized rack handles temporarily attached.


The switch toggle handles peek out just enough... No accidental flipping of switches. It takes some effort to consciously flip it. Using your thumb and fingernails seems to be the easiest way to toggle it.

The blue anodized finish of the case gives it a weird effect when photographed... kinda like a soft glow coming from the surface of the case.

Forgive the crooked holes for the VU meters, and too large holes for the switches. Smile These were manually drilled.

I'm going to finalize the dimensions, and have a prototype shop do a sample panel for me using CNC.

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 Friday, August 22, 2008
Hakko 808 Desoldering Gun
Friday, August 22, 2008 5:54:43 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00) ( )
So I got a Hakko808 from eBay seller. Shipping was fast, real fast via UPS.
Price is cheap too!

MADE IN JAPAN... not China.

First impressions of the Hakko: It is HUGE! See photo below. Came with extra spare parts, manual, and other goodies for maintenance and cleaning. The manual is well written... no weird Chinese to English fortune cookie translation goofiness!



I was not expecting it to be this big! My rework station also has a desoldering gun but it was small, wimpy, really sucks (in a bad way) and basically useless! A manual desoldering pump is way better than the desoldering tool on my Aoyue rework station.

The Hakko is rated 100Watts, and heats real fast. While huge, it is easy to hold and work with. The bulkiness didn't hamper movement and flexibility.

So I got an old PCB with a bunch of parts and began desoldering resistors, diodes, caps, trimmers and IC socket.

WOW! It is so easy. I dreaded desoldering before but now... it's as easy as soldering.... in reverse! I can suck the solder off an 8-pin IC socket in a few seconds, and the socket just drops off the PCB as soon as the last pin is desoldered.

Clogged holes? Not a problem. Sucks it clean. And note... I'm doing this on a double-sided, plated through-hole PCB. No damage to the PCB pads either. (Note: My Aoyue desoldering gun will suck the copper pad and rip it away from the fiberglass but still leave solder inside the plated through hole. Just total crap.)

All in all... I wish I had bought this Hakko sooner!!!! It is an investment worth buying. Will save you time, and headaches, and not ruin your PCB even when desoldering multi-pin components like IC sockets, trimmers, etc.

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 Tuesday, August 19, 2008
TS-2 Mic Preamp Prototype
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 5:57:23 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00) (  |  |  )
So hooked up my battery and 2 condenser mics to the pre... turn on power, turn on phantom for both channels, and recorded the VU meter "in action"...

Note: The audio in the video was recorded by the camera.

Youtube video here. (Make sure to watch in high quality mode and view the annotations.)



Enjoy!

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 Wednesday, August 13, 2008
SC-1 Preamp mentioned in MIX Magazine... again :)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 6:00:27 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00) ( )
Ch-Check it out! We're going places. ;D

My SC-1 preamp has been mentioned again in MIX Magazine. Wohoo!

AUGUST 2008 issue

Field Test: Avant Electronics Avantone CK-40 Stereo Mic
http://mixonline.com/gear/reviews/audio_avant_electronics_avantone/

and also back in MAY 2008 issue

Field Test: Peluso 22 47SE Tube Microphone
http://mixonline.com/gear/reviews/audio_peluso_se_tube/

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 Thursday, August 07, 2008
New PSU-4448mk2 Power Supply Kit for Yamaha PM1000 modules (adjustable output voltages)
Thursday, August 07, 2008 6:57:06 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00) (  |  |  |  )
Newly redesigned, improved, PSU-4448mk2 Kit!

Now, both rails are adjustable via onboard trimmers for that 100% perfect voltage setting.
Also two on-board LEDs... which you can wire to your front panel to use as a POWER ON indicator.
100% more filtering. More capacitors for ripple filtering.
Standard 0.1" pad spacing so you can use standard 0.1" headers.



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